3D Printed or Manufactured RC Airplanes - What's better?
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- čas přidán 20. 10. 2023
- 3D Printed RC Airplanes are an amazing thing, being able to crash and just print new parts instead of spending countless dollars on replacements! But there is a learning curve and it does take some time to master the craft.
Interested in learning about 3D Printing planes?
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Definitely want to see more 3d printed planes please !
One thing I really love about 3d printed planes is the controls feel very direct. Foam airplanes have a lot of flex in the control surfaces because they also use the foam as a hinge. So foamies have a tendency to have a squishy feel to the controls. As far as the expo...personally I use very little if any expo. Instead I reduce travel with dual rate or ATLs. The reason being is for very small stick movements expo is fine. But as you move further the graph ramps up and the controls get very aggressive and the pilot can easily get into an over reaction. So I'd suggest giving ATLs a try instead. I have 3 ATL settings set up on my radio switches: 100%, 85%, and 70%. I will typically start at 70% as it is the most controllable. But some planes don't get enough control surface movement at 70% so I have the option of going up once airborne. Or sometimes I find that once I'm confident with 70% I can go up a notch or 2 to get more control surface throw.
In the end, the most important thing is this Hobby continues to be alive all over the World and growing in enthusiasts. 3D printing is certainly making things even more within reach than ever, I built many Balsa Models and had a great time building and after I tried a 3D printing model I was amazed at how effortless the process was. I hope Balsa model planes keep going strong and traditional builders also keep building them because the craftsmanship involved makes great Modellers. However, as I said, 3D Printing is surely making the Hobby expanding even more.
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If you go down the 3d printed plane route then you will want to get LW-PLA, not regular pla, it’s about £10 more but it’s definitely worth it, I’ve printed a plane from regular pla and am currently doing one from LW PLA and the difference in weight is absolutely nuts.
Some people have difficulty finding out the right settings but I didn’t find it particularly difficult.
Yes LW-PLA Is he way to go and Now there is even LW-PLA HT which resists more heat.
@@ripmax333 Really it depends on what the plane is designed for. There are a lot of planes out there designed before LW-PLA was a thing that fly great and they are more durable than one printed in LW-PLA. But those earlier designs do not print well with LW-PLA. For a plane to print well with LW-PLA it needs to be designed to be printed in vase mode. The nice thing about planes designed for LW-PLA is they tend to be more scale. With normal PLA a lot of times the tail had to be shortened or the nose extended in order to get the right CG for the plane. With LW-PLA you can stick much closer to scale because it is so light. Personally I find that PLA just warps too easily in the sun/heat out here in Hawaii so I switched initially to PETG. Unfortunately there is no LW-PETG. There is a LW-ASA but I've found that ASA in general doesn't have good enough layer adhesion to print planes from and LW-ASA even worse. I've recently added a heat lamp to the enclosure my Prusa printer is in to reduce warping of the PETG. On long prints like wing pieces the leading and trailing edges lift about .5mm which causes assembly problems. The heated enclosure fixed that for me. Since I'm using a heated enclosure now I decided to give ABS a try and it came out great! So I'm switching over all my older designed planes to ABS. For the newer designs I've been testing Colorfab's high temp LW-PLA and that really surprised me as to how well it resists warping in the heat. It did better than PLA+ or PLA Pro. I haven't finished a plane with HT LW-PLA yet but I'm looking forward to it.
This is awesome! I wonder if one day we'll have a 3D printed B-2😮
Nice to see the scorpion and pond racer flying. I've been toying with printing both of them. But I've got a few others on the queue first.
Great video, love to see more people printing planes and making content
Your going to LOVE the scorpion! Thinks rips!
Jay you gotta build Rene’s su xr vtol edf. He’s put a lot into that project
Hello Jay, please could you inform were I can buy the Pond Racer STL files? Thanks a lot and best regards
Out of the hobby, BUT love it still. Selling all I have, way to much to list. In New Hampshire.
🤯 oh man! Sad to hear! Any turbines ? Lol
@@Jays_rcgarage not sure, small one I think. Have to go down and look. I'll get back to you.
Yeah I agree about the trade off with R&D. The 3d printed planes are great but they need to be tested with ansys flowsim or something. It would be cool if fms or horizon released plans to print. I wonder if using a 3d scanner to scan one of horizons planes would work. You could even scan broken parts on your current planes and just print a new part.
The scanning is insane. Literally print anything. Love it
Jay, can you share with us the link to the website where we can download the files for the Pond Racer please.
I feel like filling printed planed with expanding foam would add a lot more toughness
That depends on what you mean by that. If you are talking about the foaming LW-PLA filament, it is the opposite. It is weaker. Because it foams there are tiny pockets all throughout the layer so you not only have a more fragile line, but less surface are bonding one layer to the next. Now if you are talking about expanding foam like spray on expanding foam or model railroading expanding foam...that's an idea I've toyed with in my head for awhile. I think it could work and the model would need far less internal structure to be strong. But the problem is the skin is only printed .4mm thick so if the expanding foam is under any sort of pressure will push out on the skin and cause it to distort. That's what I've been trying to find a way around.
I’ve watched more than 2 dozen videos, poured over a dozen forums and blogs, spent more than 100 hours experimenting with both Pla and pre foamed LWPla, and I’m still no closer to an actual printed aircraft. LWPla has some behaviors that you can’t control and need to compensate for, and Pla is generally “too heavy” for performance aircraft. Idk what I’m doing wrong. Every thing you can think of, I’ve probably tried it already. It’s starting to feel like work, and I’m grounded until I finish a plane(rn it’s the eclipson cobra). I might just buy a plane just to get stick time. Here’s my specs if anyone wants to help:
Flsun v400, overture air pla, cura 5.7, 0.4mm TC nozzle and volcano style hot end with direct drive. I’m printing it exactly as described in the PDF. I’m getting really bad strings(in the middle of a string calibration rn), uneven and peeling brim, poor layer adhesion, disconnected infill, blisters on part, and unpredictable foaming. Just throw ideas at me, I’m open to suggestions and I’m at a loss rn.
PLA isn't too heavy. RC planes were printed from normal PLA for years before LW-PLA was invented. But you really need to stick with what the plane was designed for. Older designs will not print well with LW-PLA because they are not designed to be printed in vase mode. New planes designed for LW-PLA will not do well printed in regular PLA because they tend to be more scale and you will need to add a lot of nose weight to get the CG to balance correctly.
Now to address your issues...for the LW-PLA if you are getting stringing you probably need to follow the B2-LW category settings. This uses the spiralize settings (AKA vase mode) to print in one continuous motion, without retractions. If you are using an active foaming LW-PLA then anywhere you have retractions you are going to get stringing. There's no way around that. If you are using a pre-foamed LW-PLA then you might be able to. You shouldn't necessarily follow the PDF settings exactly. You need to modify them to suit your printer. The heat and flow settings are going to vary from person to person depending on what printer they are using and what filament they are using. So you need to print a calibration cube to determine what those values should be. I have a theory about the volcano type hot ends...I was using the Mosquito Magnum hot end on my printer for a long time which is similar to the volcano in that the melt zone is much longer than your typical hot end. I theorize that the longer melt zone is causing active foaming LW-PLA to foam too much even at lower temps which would result in a weaker print. I tried with LW-ASA years ago and the test print just broke apart in my hand. I switched to the normal Mosquito hot end more recently and tried LW-ASA again and still it was bad. So I don't have any confirmation on my theory but the idea makes sense. This plane is also printable in regular PLA. It will be heavier so it will be harder to fly but also more durable. Either way I hope your an experienced pilot because the cobra is for the more advanced pilots.
They are like flying eggshells. My conclusion with 3d printed planes is that they not worth it foam is better more durable
Try PlanePrint models with their new Gyroid Infill technique, no more Eggshell feel of the model and they fly absolutely great. look at the Model named SHARD.
3D…no, manufactured….no, wait, 3D printed. No, wait…
😂
3d printing is a form of manufacturing so you don't really have to choose